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Welcome Back, Scott Clifton!

By  Posted: Jan 14, 2009

After charming audiences as GENERAL HOSPITAL's Dillon Quartermaine from 2003-07, Scott Clifton took a year off from acting. But last week, he returned to ABC Daytime in a different role: Schuyler Joplin on ONE LIFE TO LIVE. In the January 13 issue of Soap Opera Digest, Clifton says he'd welcome a chance to revisit Dillon someday, but for now, he's loving his new home in Llanview. We caught up with Clifton right before the holidays to talk about his new gig — and what he's been missing at GH.Soap Opera Digest: We miss you on GH. Who do you keep in touch with from the cast?

Scott Clifton: I keep in touch with Drew Cheetwood, who plays Milo, and Bradford [Anderson, Spinelli]. I was a little shy when I was on GENERAL HOSPITAL, so I kinda went to work and kept my head down and then would go home for a lot of the time, but I did become really close with them at work.

Digest: Well, you were all part of the triumvirate that was fighting for Lulu.

Clifton: Yes, we called that THE THREE STOOGES storyline. And I'm not making fun of it; even the writers referred to it as that.

Digest: Then Lulu ended up with Logan.

Clifton: What happened to Logan? We found out he was Scotty Baldwin's kid, and then....

Digest: Lulu killed him.

Clifton: Lulu killed Logan?

Digest: Yeah, she killed Logan because he attacked Maxie or something to that effect.

Clifton: Like you do [laughs].

Digest: So, are you playing a very different character on OLTL?

Clifton: Oh, so different. Actors like to stretch, or at least they like to pretend they like to stretch so they can talk about stretching because it makes them sound like they have artistic integrity. I just really like pretending to be somebody else.

Digest: How is Schuyler different from Dillon?

Clifton: Dillon was a little bit more unguarded and kind of a looser cannon. I still have a long way to go to dip into Schuyler, but I think he's endured a little more suffering in life than Dillon, which may just come from having lived longer.

Digest: So how did all this happen?

Clifton: I got a call from my agent saying ONE LIFE TO LIVE was interested in testing me for this role, and I said, "Cool!" And they said, "They're going to fly you out to New York to test and then they'll let you know." So I got here and I got to see everybody and everybody was really like, "Oh, we hope you get it," because I'd known them from fan events and stuff like that. I mean, I know a lot of the cast here already, like John-Paul [Lavoisier, Rex], Kristen [Alderson, Starr] and Eddie [Alderson, Matthew]. Frank [Valentini, executive producer] directed the screen test, which I think is so cool. Frank is one of the most interesting people I have ever met and so smart and good at what he does, and I'm really happy that I get to be around him and learn from him.

Digest: And what about your girlfriend, Nicole? Are you going to try the long-distance thing?

Clifton: The plan is we're going to end up getting engaged and married and having grandchildren — we're skipping children, we're just gonna go right to grandchildren — but we're trying to figure out what we're doing. I'm going to be able to fly her out every couple of weeks. She just got accepted into the most kick-ass masters' program, so she has two years of an internship and like 90 percent of the companies that would hire her in this position are in Manhattan.